What years (span) was the series Little House supposed to be depicting? I thought it was mid 1800's, but I saw Mrs. Oleson talking on a telephone in one episode. Thank you. Donna +++++++++++++++ 02-04-06, 03:58 PM DorianGreyed Laura Ingalls Wilder was born in 1867, and died in 1957. She was married in 1885. I think the series had her married, too. Bell's patent was in 1876. By the 1890s, it is certainly possible that a telephone could have been in a town in which she lived.
02-04-06, 05:11 PM coldfuse Here is a summary of Crossed Connections, the first episode with a telephone.
"No sooner has Walnut Grove's first telephone been installed in the town's hotel than self-appointed operator Mrs. Oleson (Katherine MacGregor) begins eavesdropping on her neighbors. Overhearing a conversation between Alice Garvey (Hersha Parady) and her mother, Mrs. Oleson is shocked to discover that Alice was married before her union with her present husband, Jonathan (Merlin Oleson). This revelation causes a serious rift in the Garvey household -- at least until Jonathan finds out the real reason that Alice has never talked about her first husband. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide"
I'm not so sure about a phone in Walnut Grove in the 1800s myself!
04-24-06, 10:43 AM dcamp I have become a Little House addict. With so much garbage on tv anymore, it's refreshing to wathch something wholesome. Anyway, I just saw an episode where Royal Wilder, Almonzo's brother, left his dtr Jenny with Laura and Almonzo because he was dying. He said that they were the only family she had. Didn't Almonzo also have a sister named Eliza who used to teach school in Walnut Grove? And also, I recall another episode where a brother came to visit Laura and Almonzo and left their two very unruly sons with them while they went off on a vacation together. Anyone have any answers? Thanks. Donna
04-26-06, 09:16 AM Rainmaker [QUOTE]Originally posted by coldfuse: This revelation causes a serious rift in the Garvey household -- at least until Jonathan finds out the real reason that Alice has never talked about her first husband. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide"
Well don't leave me hanging! What's the reason? Smile
04-30-06, 11:25 AM jusork
quote: Originally posted by Rainmaker: [QUOTE]Originally posted by coldfuse: This revelation causes a serious rift in the Garvey household -- at least until Jonathan finds out the real reason that Alice has never talked about her first husband. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide"
Well don't leave me hanging! What's the reason? Smile
So it seems she was ashamed and angry. Sorry for the wait.
05-01-06, 08:20 AM Rainmaker Thanks jusork!
05-01-06, 06:34 PM RoverRoad I have every season on DVD. I love American pioneer history. It was 1860's, 70's. around that era. Any time they had a character that was a civil war hero he was always in flashbacks. So it was a few years after the civil war ended. I remember Marry talking about Abraham Lincoln when she was young as if he was the current president, and he served from 1861 to 1865. The New Beginning series would have taken place in the 1880's.
05-01-06, 06:40 PM babthrower Anybody going to watch that PBS series on pioneer life in Texas?
05-01-06, 07:44 PM Professor Babthrower: Are you talking about Texas Ranch House, a 4-part series for grades 5-8 about cattle ranching in 1867 ? I didn't know PBS was doing reality shows for kids, complete with with lesson plans for teachers. Is this something new?
05-01-06, 07:58 PM RoverRoad I'm willing to bet that the majority of the audience will be Texans... In other words, bad ratings.
05-02-06, 01:26 AM babthrower Yes, Prof, and it was pretty interesting, too. The rancher is a businessman in real life. His wife is the history buff. They have three daughters. I don't know where they found the ranch hands, from all walks I think, but they're pretty decent. No prima donnas except the foreman and the cook. (That's the problem with those 're-creation of times past' shows. They expect to-day's people to work as hard as people in those days when it was work or starve.)
A few faux pas. The rancher's wife would not have led the prayer service, or the little address to the July 4th guests, it would have been the rancher. No ranch hand would have watched a girl try to wrestle a calf across the yard without offering help. One more thing: in 110 degree heat, a foreman with a brain would have had his men up before dawn, and take a break at for a couple of hours after mid-day. Not out of compassion. It's just that guys with heatstroke don't get much done.
I plan to watch the rest, unless it gets too silly.
05-12-06, 11:39 AM babthrower Did anyone watch his series? I got busy and didn't catch any more till the final 1-hour segment. Very disappointing as an exercise, it seems.
The cowboys all quit, the raters (each in his/her way an expert in the period or ranching or personnel manaement) failed the family and gave the cowboys some criticisms too.
The rancher was a little off kilter - I think he couldn't get out of his real-life role of an administrator (hospital). He didn't do any work, just hung around the ranch house. Did some handyman stuff for his wife. But in real life a guy starting from scratch on borrowed money would have worked hard, and acted as his own ranch foreman too. (The raters criticized his very inadequate record-keeping. His response? He was used to electronic calculators and computers!) Big Grin
Every once and a while he would 'lay doen the law' to the cowboys. This behavior would be more usual for a successful, established rancher.
Aside: He expected them to spend ten hours a day in the saddle. Okay if you grew up to it. But these guys were from all walks of life. Bad planning on manager's part. He could have had them riding part of each day, getting bones, muscles and tendons used to riding, and doing the corral-building and so forth the rest of the time.
The wife put herself forward too much and didn't understand women's roles in those times. Much more serious error: she didn't do a good job at all of managing the house. It was disgustingly filthy and she and her daughters made 'corn dolls' (took about a day to make each) not realizing that in those days that would be evening work, even 'winter work'. In the hot weather it was more important to look after the cleanliness and food supply. Where there is no 'garbage truck' to come and haul things away, it makes sense to move them away form the ranch house and bury them, rather than put up with a literal plague of flies, and leave unwashed dishes around outdoors for a week at a time. These people had had a seminar about ranch life before the project. It's not that they had no idea what conditions would be like.
Also they had an elitist attitude toward the workers. They did not eat with them, and refused to share the garden produce, so the 'hands' were eating beans and dried beef all the time, meantime the very lush garden went underused: much was left at the end of the season.
(It's true that when the hands were out rounding up cattle they would eat simply, but when working on the corral, they should have had good food.)
The reason I'm disappointed is so far I have only seen one good series of the sort that tries to put modern people in pioneer or early development situations to see how they would fare. The rest have been, sadly, like this one: people with unrealistic notions based on movie and TV depicitions of 18th and 19th century life, taken out of comfortable 20th century lives, failing miserably at what could have been interesting, educational television that bridged the generations and helped us to understand our ancestors.
Did anyone else watch it? What do you think?
(The 'good one' I saw was 'Quest for the Bay', the recreation of a fur-trader's journey by freight canoe across the barrens, following the river and portage routes from Fort Gary to York Factory in a York boat - a 1,225-kilometer trip.
The backbreaking work of portaging a 900 kilogram boat; eating "pemmican", a trail-mix of buffalo meat fat and dried blueberries; facing the very real dangers of sudden violent summer storms on the lake, all were well depicted.
And they did make it to their destination.)
05-12-06, 12:07 PM juanruiz Isn't there a similar thing going on in Canada? A group living out on the prairie à la 19th century. As I recall one of the people chosen was arrested for some reason and not allowed to participate.
05-12-06, 12:35 PM babthrower
quote: Originally posted by juanruiz: Isn't there a similar thing going on in Canada? A group living out on the prairie à la 19th century.
Are you thinking of Pioneer Quest, A Year in the Real West made in Manitoba in 2000? I watched it but I have to say it was very disappointing. The Logies (the younger couple) and the Treadways (brought in at the last minute) spent a season )spring through fall) in Manitoba. Again, the same blunders were made. I think such programs should be 'directed' and not let the actors wing it as they did in this 8-hour miniseries.
Yes, the Treadways (the American couple) were brought in at the last minute to replace a younger couple who had been originally set to play the second couple. Unspecified problems prevented the first couple to participate - hints of legal problems of some sort. But the Treadways were not compatible with the Logies and it was clear they were unprepared.
Both couples were greenhorns. I still cringe when I recall that clown Tim Treadway squirting milk into another actor's face by squeezing the cow's teat bent at a sharp angle. The cow winced in pain; but someone who knew something about dairy cattle knows that this can rupture the delicate ducts inside the teat and can cause scar tissue and possible abscess, and the cow loses a 'quarter' and is fit only for canned beef. A cow's teat is not much like a garden hose.
There is apparently a two-hour summary which is much better at showing conditions, and dwells less on the interpersonal dealings of the participants who try to represent the pioneers. I haven't seen it, but I hope they lost the milking scene!
05-12-06, 01:12 PM juanruiz
quote: made in Manitoba in 2000?
Wow! Was it that long ago? Yes, that's the show I had in mind. I'm fairly certain the original couple got the axe because the guy had outstanding warrants or some such legal difficulty. Thanks for bringing me up to date, babs.
05-13-06, 07:49 AM shelster I grew up on Little House.
Every summer vacation, the series would be starting out around the episode where young Laura's brother died, and she climbed the mountain to be closer to God.
Then by the end of the summer, she was nearly grown or married, and I would go back to school.
I never did see the end of the series, or the very beginning.
I plan on buying the series on dvd some day. I just wish I could get my kids into it.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: DorianGreyed,
